Tuesday, June 05, 2007

SHAKESPEARE BULLETIN

... a quarterly performance-studies journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press is now accepting proposals for and submissions of theatre reviews for the 2008 volume. The format of the Theatre Reviews section, nd the submissions policy for theatre reviews will be changing significantly in 2008. The changes are outlined below. Please direct all questions to the Theatre Review Editor, Jeremy Lopez, at jeremy.lopez@utoronto.ca.

Editorial Philosophy and GoalsWe are seeking to liberate ?the review? from its highly conventionalized format: 1000-or-so words, generous description of production choices, concise and balanced, quasi-objective evaluation of the relationship between production and audience, performance and text, etc. While such conventions certainly need not be avoided simply for the sake of doing so, we are interested in encouraging contributors to pursue formal innovation and to develop vivid, idiosyncratic, singular critical voices and perspectives. Reviews will no longer be limited to 1000 words and, indeed, need not deal with a single production or a group of geographically or otherwise closely related productions. We encourage contributors to write in the most interesting way possible about the most interesting productions of early modern drama that they see.

Review AssignmentsThe bulk of review essays will now be solicited by the Theatre Review Editor. A number of these have already been solicited for the 2008 volume. The Theatre Review Editor will be happy to receive (by email) ideas for review essays and to work in collaboration with prospective authors on developing proposals that can be scheduled for publication. In each volume, we seek a certain amount of geographical range, as well as a range of kinds of productions?student, professional, mainstream, fringe, etc.

Unsolicited ReviewsWe are pleased to receive theatre reviews, of any length and in any format, at any time. All theatre reviews will now be subject to editorial review: unsolicited theatre reviews are not guaranteed publication. We do not mean this to discourage submissions. Quite the contrary. Our goal is not to remake the Bulletin?s theatre-reviews section as a collection of scholarly articles resembling the material in other parts of the journal; rather, we hope to display in each issue a variety of kinds of writing-about-performance?reviews in a variety of shapes, sizes, and modes. Contributors can be assured that the editorial-review process will be swift and that every effort will be made to publish reviews in a timely fashion with respect to the production?s run-dates.

Upcoming issuesWe are pleased to invite submissions and proposals for the 2008 volume. Productions to be reviewed in this volume must have a start-date of no earlier than June 1, 2007.